Washing apparatus



SePt- 26, `1967 l E. A. TAYLoR, .IRv 3,343,382

WASHING APPARATUS Filed DBC. 29, 1966 IINVENTOR. ERNEST A. TA Y1. 0R,JR.

QMJAML ATTORNEY y United States Patent Office 3,343,382 Patented Sept.26, 1967 3,343,382 WASHING APPARATUS Ernest A. Taylor, Jr., Decatur,Ala., assignor to Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation ofDelaware Filed Dec. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 605,705 5 Claims. (Cl. 68--181)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention provides an apparatus forcontinuously washing a moving tow of synthetic filaments, the tow beingspread into ribbon form. The apparatus is provided with an elongatedchamber through which water and the tow are passed. Opposite walls ofthe chamber are provided with spaced convex protuberances which causethe water to sweep back and forth from one side of the passageway to theother along a substantially sinusoidal path, the water thus passing backand forth through the tow.

This invention relates to washing apparatus and more particularly toapparatus for washing a moving tow.

In some wet spinning operations the freshly spun synthetic fiber tow ispassed through a bath of hot'water to remove the residual solvent fromthe filaments making up the tow. A major disadvantage of this process isthat the washing process is somewhat inefficient. This inefiiciencyapparently stems from the fact .that circularion of the hot water aroundand through the moving tow is poor. Apparently, the wash water clings tothe tow to form a boundary layer of water which impedes the washingprocess. This problem is overcome in the present invention by forcingthe heated water to travel back and forth through the tow from one sideto the other to thereby break up this boundary layer and thereby betterexpose the filaments in the tow to the hot water.

One object of this invention is to provide a novel and improvedapparatus for washing a moving strand.

Another object of this invention s to provide an apparatus whichthoroughly and eiiiciently washes a tow by forcing heated water back andforth through a tow from one side to the other.

A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus forwashing a moving tow wherein the tow moves through a hot water carryingpassage in the apparatus, the passageway having on opposite wallsthereof a plurality of spaced protuberances which force the moving waterto sweep back and forth from one side of the passageway to the other.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a tow washingapparatus having a rectangular passageway through which the tow and hotwater are passed, opposite walls of the rectangular passageway havingthereon a plurality of spaced convex or semi-cylindrical protuberanceswhich cause the 'heated water to sweep back and forth from one side ofthe passageway to the other along a substantially sinusoidal path.

One embodiment of the present invention contemplates a tow washer havingan elongated chamber or passageway through which a moving tow is passed.Heated water is introduced into the chamber at the midpoint thereof andows outward toward the ends of the chamber. Opposite walls of thechamber are provided with spaced, semi-cylindrical protuberances, theprotuberances on one wall being spaced longitudinally from those on the-other wall so that the iiowing water is forced to sweep back and forthfrom one side of the chamber to the other as it moves therealong. Inthis manner the hot water is forced back and forth through the movingtow to provide an efficient washing operation.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent when the following detailed description is read in conjunctionwith the appended drawing, in which FIGURE 1 is a perspective view ofone embodiment of the invention with portions cut away to show apassageway for carrying a moving tow and heated water,

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 showingthe cross-sectional configuration of the passageway, and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical cross sectional view of the apparatusshowing the luse of concave deection surfaces used when the convexprotuberances are positioned close together.

Referring now in detail to the drawing there is shown a tow washingapparatus 11 having an elongated chamber 12 which has a rectangularcross-sectional configuration. The ends 13 of the chamber 11 areprovided with elongated openings 14 through which a wide, thin ribbon ofsynthetic filaments 17 are moved, the filaments 17 being advanced byrolls 18. The dimension W on the growing (FIGURE 2) gives the width ofthe openings 14; This may be from 1/2 to 2 times the normal width of thetow. Preferably, it is slightly greater than the normal tow width.

The chamber 12 is provided with an inlet opening 19 through which heatedwater from a supply 20 is forced. The heated water flows from the inletopening 19 outward toward opposite ends of 'the chamber 12 and eXitsfrom the chamber 12 through openings 21.

From the drawing, it will be readily apparent that the tow bundle 17travels substantially along the center line of the chamber 12 with'thehot water flowing from the midpoint of the chamber back and forththrough the tow to the outlets 21 at the ends of `the chamber. In orderto force the heated water to sweep back and forth through the tow fromone side to the other, a plurality of spaced, convex protuberances aresecured to the upper and lower walls of the chamber 12. Upperprotuberances 23 are so spaced longitudinally from the lowerprotuberances 24 on the lower wall of the chamber that each upperprotuberance 23 is at the midpoint, longitudinally, between two of thelower protuberances 24. The upper protuberances 23 are also sopositioned that one of these protuberances is directly opposite the hotwater inlet 19.

The protuberances 23 and 24 extend from the walls of the chamber 12toward the center line of the chamber a suicient distance to leave onlya narrow passageway for the at bundle of filaments 17, this passagewayhaving the verti-cal dimension A. The vertical dimension A of thepassageway is the distance between the plane defined by the apices ofthe upper protuberances 23 to the plane deiined by the apices of thelower protuberances 24. The width of the passageway is the dimension W.

The protuberances 23 and 24, which are generally semi-cylindrical incross-sectional configuration, extend towardV the center line of thepassageway a distance L (refer to drawing), the dimension L being 4-10times the dimension A, with the preferred value being 5-7A. Thedimension M on the drawing represents one-half the base dimension ofeach prot-uberance 23 and is in the range of 6-12A with the preferredvalue being 7-10A. The distance between centers of adjacentprotuberances 23 is represented on the drawing by the letter N, thedistance or dimension N being 16-32 times the dimension A with apreferred range of 22-26A. The purpose of maintaining a preciserelationship between the various dimensions is to insure that the heatedwater will pass through the chamber along a substantially sinusoidalpath. There is some controlled turbulence on the downstream side of eachof the protuberances but the ow path of a major portion of the heatedwater substantially defines a sine curve.

The product of dimension A and dimension W defines the area of the clearspace through the water. The dimension A may range from zero to 30 timesthe normal thickness of the tow. Preferably, the dimension A is 2-3times the tow thickness when W is the normal tow width.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the heated water is swept backand forth laterally through the tow to provide intimate contact withevery filament in the tow and yet the protuberances 23 do not impedewater flow to an undesirable extent.

As the protuberances are moved closer together (longitudinally), eddyingturbulence between adjacent protuberances will increase. This eddyingturbulence can be substantially eliminated by providing the chamber withconcave deflection surfaces 28 and 29 (FIGURE 3) which are positionedbetween and interconnect adjacent protuberances. The concave surfacesand the convex protuberances will dene a substantially sinusoidal paththrough the chamber. In the event that the concave surfaces 28 and 29are used, the dimension L will be the distance from the outermostportion (i. e., most distant from the tow 17) of the concave surface tothe plane defined by the apices of the protuberances. The dimension Mwill be the longitudinal distance from the center of the protuberance tothe point of inflection of the curve formed by the concave and convexsurfaces (the point at which the concave surface intersections theconvex outer surface of the protuberance).

The use of the concave surfaces intersecting the convex protuberanceswill eliminate eddying turbulence between adjacent protuberances whenthese protuberances are positioned fairly close together longitudinally.

In operation, the tow 17, which has been flattened to a wide, thinribbon of filaments is advanced by the rlls 18 through the chamber 12.Hot water is circulated at high speed through the chamber 12 asdescribed above. It can readily be seen that the internal configurationof the chamber 12 will cause the heated water to pass back and forththrough the tow from one side to the other, thereby breaking up anyboundary layer around every filament and throughly penetrating the towto provide a superior washing result.

While this apparatus has been described in connection with washing atow, it may also be used to treat a tow or fabric with either a liquidor gaseous treating medium as, for example, in a fabric dyeingoperation.

It is to be understood that the embodiment disclosed herein may beamended or altered and that numerous other embodiments may becontemplated without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for treating a moving strand, comprising an elongatedchamber having therein an inlet opening and an outlet opening, means forforcing a treating medium into the inlet opening and through the chamberto the outlet opening, said chamber having on opposite sides of theinterior thereof a plurality of spaced protuberances for deflect'ingsaid treating medium from one side of the chamber to the other, saidprotuberances each having a convex surface configuration, saidprotuberances on one side of the chamber being spaced longitudinallyfrom the protuberances on the other side of the chamber in such almanner that each of said protuberances is positioned at the longitudinalmidpoint between adjacent protuberances on the opposite side of thechamber, said protuberances having a height L, a base width 2M and aspacing between centers N, where where A is the distance from the planedened by the apices of the protuberances on one side of the chamber tothe plane defined by the apices of the protuberances on the other sideof the chamber.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the inlet opening is near themidpoint of the chamber and the outlet opening comprises openings ateach end of the chamber.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 where 4. The apparatus of claim 1 whereinthe protuberances are generally semi-cylindrical in cross-sectionalconfiguration with one of said protuberances being positioned across thechamber directly opposite said inlet opening.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the chamber is provided with concavesurfaces interconnecting adjacent protuberances, said convexprotuberances and concave surfaces forming substantially a sinusoidalpath through said chamber.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,897,122 2/1933 Hartmann et al.

2,558,734 7/1951 Cresswell 68--181 3,267,704 8/1966 Muller 68-62 FOREIGNPATENTS 661,941 4/ 1963 Canada.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

1. AN APPARATUS FOR TREATING A MOVING STRAND, COMPRISING AN ELONGATEDCHAMBER HAVING THEREIN AN INLET OPENING AND AN OUTLET OPENING, MEANS FORFORCING A TREATING MEDIUM INTO THE THE INLET OPENING AND THROUGH THECHAMBER TO THE OUTLET OPENING, SAID CHAMBER HAVING ON OPPOSITE SIDES OFTHE INTERIOR THEREOF A PLURALITY OF SPACED PROTURBERANCES FOR DEFLECTINGSAID TREATING MEDIUM FROM ONE SIDE OF THE CHAMBER TO THE OTHER, SAIDPROTUBERANCES EACH HAVING A CONVEX SURFACE CONFIGURATION, SAIDPROTUBERANCES ON ONE SIDE OF THE CHAMBER BEING SPACED LONGITUDINALLYFROM THE PROTUBERANCES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAMBER IN SUCH A MANNERTHAT EACH OF SAID PROTUBERANCES IS POSITIONED AT THE LONGITUDINALMIDPOINT BETWEEN ADJACENT PROTUBERANCES ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THECHAMBER, SAID